Ricciardo’s recent struggles at McLaren and now VCARB have taken everyone by surprise and are difficult to accept. How did a driver with eight Grand Prix wins perform so poorly? Honda-backed Tsunoda has outperformed him since they became teammates last year, after the unsuccessful Nyck de Vries experiment.
Statistics show that Ricciardo is not much better than the criticized Dutchman when compared to Tsunoda’s performance. This fact not only confuses Formula 1 fans, but also Red Bull.
During an interview with Laola, Marko addressed Ricciardo’s poor form: “We’re all puzzled by this. He’s consistently slower than Yuki. Something is always going wrong for him, which is surprising because he seemed to be doing well during F1 Testing. But right now, Yuki is clearly faster. The question is: has Yuki become a rising star or is Daniel just that weak? After three races on three completely different tracks, we still don’t have objective answers.”
With Red Bull junior Liam Lawson waiting in the wings, Marko informed reporters in Australia: “Both drivers have access to each other’s data, so there are no secrets. They have the same car. Everything is equal. It usually comes down to the mental aspect for the drivers.”
This is the same conclusion McLaren reached two years ago when they paid Ricciardo to leave the team a year early in order to make room for Australian rookie Oscar Piastri. It turned out to be a wise decision.
Red Bull made a mistake by welcoming back their prodigal son, who couldn’t stop talking about how much he wanted to be Verstappen’s teammate again while undermining and aiming to replace Perez, who he posed and smiled next to.
The awkwardness remains, with the only difference being that Perez has stepped up his game while Ricciardo continues to be a mere shadow of his former self. He is on the F1 grid because of his marketability, not because he is fast anymore. That speed disappeared years ago, just ask McLaren.
As for Perez, Marko praised the experienced Mexican driver for his performances in the #11 Red Bull: “It’s worth noting that Checo has had three good races out of four this year. The only reason he fell behind in Melbourne was due to damage to the underbody and tire degradation. His only weakness is in qualifying, but if he can improve there, there’s no need to worry. The team atmosphere is very positive, including his contribution.”